Later in the afternoon Xu Long was still sitting with his eyes closed in the lotus position on his bed, the training sword from the morning laying on his lap. He opened his eyes and saw his mother sitting at the table looking at him, a slight smile on her face.

“Come sit, Long’er, I have some news that you will no doubt enjoy.”

Xu Long went to get up to go over to her when he realized that he had Old Wu’s training sword on his lap. He coughed into his hand a little embarrassed and set it on his bed before going over to his mother, who he was glad to see was not in the mood to poke fun at him today.

“Wu Zhong told me about your session this morning, congratulations, it is no small thing.”

Xu Long shook his head. “Come on Mother, it is not such a big deal.”

“On the contrary, I have no doubt that in the future you will look back on today as one of the most important in your life. And in light of that, I think a little gift is in order.”

Before Xu Long could even think about turning it down, his mother gestured with her ringed hand and a sword in a scabbard appeared on the table between them.

“This will be your training sword, both its weight and size are adjustable, though you will have to have Wu Zhong adjust it for you as it requires qi.”

Xu Long was mesmerized, although it looked simple, he thought it was beautiful. He reached out and ran his hand along the scabbard until he reached the hilt, which he grabbed and then unsheathed the sword in one smooth motion. The sword made a very satisfying sound as it left the scabbard, however Xu Long only registered it subconsciously, fixated as he was on the sword in his hand, it was perfect, he could pick up on all the subtle differences to the sword sitting on his bed, the balance, the weight, the way it seemed to glide through the air as if it was cutting through the wind.

As he went to touch the blade, he was stopped by his mother’s voice. “Long’er, be careful, though I called it your training sword, that does not mean that it is some blunt training blade, this is a real sword, one that is incredibly sharp and will remain so indefinitely.”

Xu Long nodded his head as he ran his index and middle finger along the flat of the blade. “Is it alright for me to practice with a sharpened sword?”

Looking up from the sword to his mother as he asked, what he saw in answer was a small smile. “Long’er, the only person you will be practicing with is Wu Zhong, and trust me when I tell you it is absolutely impossible for you to harm him, accidentally or otherwise. The only person this sword is a danger to is you, but Wu Zhong and I have talked it over and agreed that it is better for you in the long run to train with a real sword from the beginning.”

“Anyway, now that that is done with, let's move on to the news I have for you.” Xu Long nodded as he placed the sword back in its scabbard.

“You will no doubt be ecstatic to learn that due to recent developments I am revising your curriculum.” And indeed Xu Long’s face lit up at the thought.

“I wouldn’t jump for joy just yet.” With a small smirk on her face. “I meant what I said, I will not abide my son being trapped in a formation, you will be learning how to break them. We will just be coming at the problem from a different perspective. Instead of you learning how to break formations through extensive knowledge and analysis, we will take an approach based more on intuition and sensing weak points.”

“The good news for you is that this will change a condensed 2 to 3 years of daily lessons into a once a week all day class until you begin Body Refinement.”

That really was good news, although Xu Long was unsure about this new perspective formation breaking and what exactly it would entail, he could hardly envision it being worse than the previous way he was learning.

“What about the rest of the week?”

His mother smiled, she knew what he was hoping to hear. “You will alternate between full days with Wu Zhong and half days with him, on the half days we will round out your education. For instance, I will sure up your general knowledge about cultivation, we will delve deeper into spirit beasts, do a refresher on spirit plants so I can be sure that you remember them…I will teach you a little about the history of this realm, and we will go over a very limited overview of the cultivation world as a whole.”

Xu Long quickly did the math in his head, ‘that is an extra day of training with Old Wu a week, and the classes with Mother don’t sound so bad.’

“Sounds great, but why a limited overview?”

“Because I want you to form your own opinions about the world outside of our little valley, not just inherit mine.” His mother replied while gazing out the window, a contemplative look on her face.

After a few moments she seemed to snap out of her musings and returned her focus to her son. “So, with all of that being said, you and I will start our weekly lesson tomorrow as Wu Zhong had to step out for a day to take care of a small errand. Until then, you are free.”

She stood up and left the room at a leisurely pace, Xu Long watched his mother leave, not entirely sure what to make of that last answer. ‘An afternoon to myself…’, as Xu Long was pondering what to do with his new found free time, he caught a glimpse of his new sword sitting on the table out of the corner of his eye and he had an idea. He grabbed the sword and headed off, out into the valley in the direction of the western wall.

He arrived at his destination some ten minutes later, it was a cleft in the valley wall, like someone had cut a semicircular hole in it, creating somewhat of an isolated grove. In the middle of the back wall there was a waterfall that ended in a decent sized pond which then became a small meandering stream that snaked out of the grove to join the valley proper and eventually fed into the river that ran down the center of the valley. Like the rest of the valley, the grove was not lacking in greenery, but truth be told there were probably more than a few more picturesque locations in the valley, but this place had been Xu Long’s favorite ever since he found it, he felt drawn to it.

Walking slowly through the grove until he came to a small clearing in the trees at the bank of the pond, with the sound of the gentle waterfall in the background Xu Long nodded his head to himself and unsheathed his new sword. Even without Old Wu here to guide him he had run through these forms just a short few hours ago well enough that he could count on one hand the number of times Old Wu had corrected him. So he had confidence that he could train on his own without supervision, at least for an afternoon. And so he began.

Hours later a rather sweaty young boy could be seen swinging a sword through what looked to be long practiced movements, if one looked closely they might think he was in a trance, blind to the world as he appeared.

“Long’er, I believe it is time to call it a day.”

A gentle voice woke him from his concentration, looking over he saw his mother standing by a tree, a slight smile on her face. He blinked a few times then looked to the sky to check the position of the sun. When he saw that it had already dipped below the valley wall he was a little shocked. Looking back at his mother’s face, he rubbed the tip of his nose with the middle of his index finger as he gave her a somewhat guilty looking grin.

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“Sorry Mother, looks like time got away from me.”

“Don’t be sorry Long’er, I am very pleased that you have found something that you are passionate about.”

As he went to find his scabbard that he had rested on a rock nearby and sheathed his sword, out of the corner of his eye he saw his mother having a glance at the grove.

“What made you pick this place?”

A look of contemplation appeared on his face as he thought about his answer. “I don’t rightly know, I guess you could say I just feel drawn to it.”

When she heard his answer she smiled. ”Wu Zhong was right about you, you are quite perceptive.” Leaving it with that cryptic response, she turned to leave the grove, as she was walking away she said over her shoulder, “why don’t you clean up in the pond, your dinner will be waiting for you in your room.”

Standing there a little confused, Xu Long shrugged his shoulders before disrobing and jumping into the pond. Almost instantly he realized that the water felt not merely refreshing but absurdly so, like nothing he had ever experienced before. As he swam around in the pond he could feel the weariness after the day spent training seep out of him, it was an absolutely magical feeling. After about 10 minutes of floating around, that feeling of refreshment dissipated, Xu Long figured that was his cue to leave, so he exited the pond feeling as if he hadn’t spent the whole day swinging a sword, but also a little perturbed.

He walked into his room still pondering over the dilemma he was wrestling with, that was when he saw his mother sitting at the table sipping tea, a sight that was becoming frequently more common these days. He sat down at the meal that had been prepared for him, a very simple looking affair that was no doubt incredibly delicious. When he looked at his mother, wondering whether he should speak his mind.

His mother, who had been watching him since he entered the room, smiled at him. “Ask your question Long’er, it's fine.”

Xu Long shook his head, wondering why he ever expected his mother not to read him like an open book. “Why haven’t I been using the pond since my training with Old Wu began?”

“You have, in a way. The formation behind the effects of the pond are replicated in your bed on a smaller scale. It is understandable that you don’t know, as you have never known any different, but there is no 6 year old mortal human that could keep up the rather relentless schedule that you have been adhering to, or for that matter your persistent scouring of the valley last year.”

When she saw her son looking at her mouth hanging open, she let out a small laugh. “As for the reason that you have not been using the much more potent pond until today, well that was the decision of Wu Zhong, I suspect he did not want you pushing yourself too hard. These rejuvenation formations can do wonders for the body, but they completely neglect the mind, and thus overreliance is strongly discouraged at such a young age.”

Seeing her son looking at her a little incredulously. “I did say that the formation on your bed is on a smaller scale. Long’er. The difference is not insignificant, with the bed formation you can fill your day with as much as you are able, then you retire to your bed and wake up the next day fully rested and able to have another full day rather than needing to rest and recover from the day before. The use of the pond however facilitates something far more extreme, you can push yourself to your limit in a matter of hours, soak in the pond and then do it all over again, completely exhausting yourself and recovering as many times as you like.”

After listening to his mother’s explanation Xu Long had to admit that it did make sense and that he may have overreacted a touch when he heard that he had, unknown to him, been using a formation that was ‘strongly discouraged’ for quite a while. “So I shouldn’t use the pond?”

“I didn’t say that, I said ‘overreliance is strongly discouraged’, that being said, I will be deferring to Wu Zhong on this and all matters with regard to your martial training.

“The reason that I introduced the pond and its effects to you today is to teach you something more important. To trust your instincts. The reason that you were drawn to the tree that is the entrance to the valley, when even a Dao Seeking expert could not easily find it, is because you were born here and have spent your entire life here. The same goes for the grove with the pond, you have spent most of your life sleeping on that formation bed and were thus drawn to a stronger version of something that felt very familiar to you.

“Currently, it is impossible for you to systematically develop this heightened perception of yours until you start on your cultivation journey, for now I just wanted you to be aware of your intuitions, and open yourself up to the possibility of having confidence in them.”

While Xu Long was still in deep thought, she waved her hand and stored her teapot and half full cup. “Enjoy your dinner and get a good night's rest, Long’er. Tomorrow may not be as harrowing as your previous foray into formations, but it will by no means be easy.” Smiling at her slightly dazed son she turned around and left his room.

The next day rolled around in a flash, a groggy Xu Long was awoken by his mother. He had found sleep to be rather elusive with all that energy from his dip into the pond, so he had ended up training with his new sword once again a lot later into the night than he would usually be awake until.

As he made his way to the table his mother knowingly smiled at him. “I take it last night was an adequate demonstration of the pitfalls of the pond?”

When Xu Long heard what his mother said, he shook his head a little, “I understand the lesson Mother, don’t you think just telling me would have been sufficient?”

With a somewhat serious look on her face his mother answered, “Long’er, there were many ways that you could have chosen to burn off that excess energy to help you fall asleep, but you chose to repeat practicing the sword forms that you had already spent all day on. I told you yesterday that I was happy that you had found something that you were passionate about, but that comes with a caveat.

“You must learn to temper that passion, control it, lest it becomes an obsession, and you forsake everything and everyone around you for the sake of that obsession.”

Xu Long looked at his mother, “lessons within lessons, is it?” He thought she was being a little unfair, he had only been practicing the sword for a day, before he could say as much though his mother continued like she already knew his retort.

“This is not a criticism, Long’er, it is a warning, and it comes from experience. For me, my passion was formations. I took to them from an early age, I dove in head first and never looked back up, over the years I let everything else fall by the wayside. In the end it cost me dearly. With the benefit of hindsight I can see that had I taken even a fraction of my time to pay attention to the world around me a lot of it could have been avoided.”

Xu Long was more than a little shocked, his mother never talked about her past, for her to do so now just emphasized the seriousness she placed on this topic. So he kept the warning in his heart. “I understand Mother.”

Smiling a little at the serious look on her son’s face. “Long’er, you are very young, younger even than me when I started learning formations, and to temper your passion for something is possibly one of the most difficult things to accomplish. I have seen you practice the sword, I do not expect you to succeed. I simply tell you this to plant a seed, so that hopefully you will keep it in the back of your mind.

“Now that all of that is out of the way let us begin your new lesson.”

Xu Long was still reflecting on his mother’s warning when his attention was grabbed by a rather sizable octagonal slab of jade that materialized before him on the table. It was relatively thin given that it took up a quarter of the table and its surface was mirror perfect.

While Xu Long was staring at it in slight confusion a mass of runes and lines appeared on the surface, he recognized instantly that it was a formation diagram from his brief foray into more formal education on the subject, but as he examined it he got a strange feeling as his eyes passed over a certain section.

“Press it with your finger.”

Almost subconsciously Xu Long did as his mother said. As he pressed the section that felt strange to him the entire diagram faded out of existence and a new one took its place. Xu Long looked at his mother, at a complete loss as to the point of this exercise.

She smiled, “we are training your intuition to pinpoint the weak points of formations, Long’er.”

“I thought you said yesterday that I couldn’t develop that until I start cultivating?”

His mother placed a finger to her lips, deliberating on her response. “Indeed you can not, right now your intuition or perception, while exceptional, is still that of a mortal with all the vagueness and unreliability that that entails. No matter how you train, it can never transcend that level. Once you add cultivation and all the benefits to the spirit it brings, only then can that limitation be broken.

“Thus, we do not focus on honing your intuition to make it better, as this would be a waste of time, instead we focus on expanding the type of things that you can intuit. This method of formation breaking was designed by me to be complementary to the type of intuition that you will naturally develop as your martial training progresses with Wu Zhong, namely the pinpointing of weaknesses.”

Xu Long was speechless, he had spent so much of his life before that fateful day he jumped off the waterfall with his mother just being his mother, sometimes he forgot just how amazing she actually was.